Despite Nigeria’s headline inflation rate easing marginally in June 2026, residents in more than half of the country’s states continued to face annual inflation above 30 per cent, with Niger, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory recording the highest rates.

The latest Consumer Price Index report released by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that headline inflation slowed slightly to 15.91 per cent in June from 15.93 per cent recorded in May.

However, an analysis of the state-by-state inflation data by The PUNCH showed that 19 states and the FCT, representing 20 of Nigeria’s 37 sub-national entities or 54.1 per cent, recorded annual all-items inflation rates above 30 per cent in June.

The analysis also showed that Imo, which recorded the country’s lowest annual inflation rate at 19.47 per cent, was still 3.56 percentage points higher than the national headline inflation rate, showing the wide disparity between the national average and inflation experienced across the states.

According to the NBS data, Niger recorded the highest annual headline inflation rate at 42.23 per cent, followed by Kogi with 41.59 per cent and the FCT with 39.91 per cent.

The NBS report read, “In June 2026, the All-Items inflation rate on a Year-on-Year basis was highest in Niger (42.23 per cent), Kogi (41.59 per cent), and Abuja (39.91 per cent), while Imo (19.47 per cent), Ebonyi (20.79 per cent) and Katsina (21.87 per cent) recorded the lowest rise in Headline inflation on a Year-on-Year basis.”

Other states with inflation rates above 30 per cent were Kwara (36.52 per cent), Plateau (35.82 per cent), Sokoto (35.22 per cent), Benue (35.06 per cent), Osun (34.46 per cent), Yobe (34.40 per cent), Kebbi (34.07 per cent), Enugu (34.00 per cent), Bauchi (33.68 per cent), Gombe (33.51 per cent), Oyo (32.81 per cent), Lagos (32.28 per cent), Akwa Ibom (31.85 per cent), Adamawa (31.82 per cent), Ekiti (31.00 per cent), Taraba (30.54 per cent), and Abia (30.28 per cent).

The remaining 17 states recorded annual inflation below 30 per cent. Among them, Imo posted the lowest rate at 19.47 per cent, followed by Ebonyi (20.79 per cent) and Katsina (21.87 per cent).

Others were Rivers (23.73 per cent), Zamfara (24.00 per cent), Kaduna (24.71 per cent), Edo (25.90 per cent), Cross River (25.91 per cent), Delta (26.31 per cent), Borno (26.62 per cent), Kano (26.80 per cent), Anambra (27.37 per cent), Ondo (28.14 per cent), Ogun (28.18 per cent), Jigawa (29.06 per cent), Nasarawa (29.11 per cent), and Bayelsa (29.66 per cent).

The bureau, however, noted that inflation figures should not be used for direct interstate price comparisons because consumer spending patterns and the weighting assigned to goods and services differ across states.

The report also showed that food inflation remained considerably higher across many states than the national average. Kogi recorded the highest annual food inflation rate at 53.02 per cent, followed by Niger (43.83 per cent) and Benue (40.83 per cent).

The FCT recorded 40.20 per cent, while Adamawa (39.61 per cent), Osun (39.56 per cent), Kwara (39.00 per cent), Kebbi (37.59 per cent), Sokoto (37.01 per cent), Plateau (36.84 per cent), Yobe (36.68 per cent), Enugu (35.24 per cent), Gombe (34.43 per cent), Kaduna (34.41 per cent), Bayelsa (34.03 per cent), Jigawa (33.92 per cent), Ekiti (33.04 per cent), Akwa Ibom (32.93 per cent), Edo (32.66 per cent), Bauchi (31.54 per cent), Zamfara (30.84 per cent), Delta (30.66 per cent), Nasarawa (30.48 per cent), Cross River (30.39 per cent), and Oyo (30.17 per cent) also recorded food inflation above 30 per cent.

At the other end of the ranking, Katsina recorded the lowest annual food inflation rate at 19.15 per cent, followed by Rivers (23.81 per cent) and Imo (24.60 per cent).

Nationally, food inflation stood at 17.52 per cent year-on-year in June, compared with 25.41 per cent in the corresponding period of 2025. On a month-on-month basis, however, food inflation accelerated to 3.75 per cent from 2.98 per cent in May, driven by increases in the prices of crayfish, fresh pepper, tomatoes, dried green peas, yam flour, water yam, beef, banana, cassava flour, cowpea, garri, Irish potatoes and yam tubers, according to the NBS.

The state-level data also reflected divergent monthly price movements. Niger recorded the highest month-on-month headline inflation at 11.65 per cent, followed by Katsina (8.13 per cent), Kwara (7.52 per cent), Gombe (7.09 per cent), Kebbi (6.99 per cent), Plateau (6.53 per cent), and Lagos (6.37 per cent).

In contrast, Bayelsa recorded the largest monthly decline in headline inflation at -6.48 per cent, followed by Benue (-5.58 per cent), Cross River (-5.12 per cent), Borno (-4.37 per cent), and Anambra (-4.17 per cent).

For food inflation, Katsina recorded the highest month-on-month increase at 16.82 per cent, ahead of Kebbi (9.79 per cent) and Niger (8.96 per cent), while Borno (-3.54 per cent), Benue (-2.36 per cent), and Bayelsa (-1.34 per cent) recorded the biggest monthly declines.

Although Nigeria’s headline inflation rate eased marginally in June, the latest figures indicate that price pressures remain elevated across much of the country, with more than half of the states and the FCT still recording annual inflation above 30 per cent.

Commenting on the latest inflation figures, the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, said the June report pointed to a broad stabilisation in headline inflation but warned that rising food prices remained the biggest threat to households.

Yusuf noted that while headline inflation eased marginally from 15.93 per cent in May to 15.91 per cent in June, the acceleration in food inflation showed that structural pressures persisted across the economy.

He said, “The dominant concern in the report is the renewed acceleration in food inflation. Year-on-year food inflation increased from 17.43 per cent to 17.52 per cent, while month-on-month food inflation rose sharply from 2.98 per cent to 3.75 per cent, the strongest monthly increase in several months. This suggests that food prices have resumed an upward trajectory after a brief period of moderation.”

According to him, food inflation remains the biggest driver of Nigeria’s cost-of-living crisis, eroding household purchasing power, worsening poverty and food insecurity, and weakening the inclusiveness of ongoing economic reforms.

Yusuf argued that the inflation challenge remained largely structural rather than monetary, citing insecurity, high transportation and logistics costs, elevated energy prices, rising fertiliser costs, supply chain disruptions and imported inflation as the major drivers of rising prices.

He added that the June inflation figures did not justify another monetary policy tightening by the Central Bank of Nigeria, saying the immediate priority should be coordinated structural reforms to boost food production, improve logistics, reduce energy and production costs, deepen domestic petroleum refining and strengthen productivity across the economy. (PUNCH)

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